Asian Youth Games: Team Philippines upbeat after pencak silat’s Carpio strikes first gold

From left: Chef de mission to Asian Youth Games Ramon “Tats” Suzara, Pencak Silat national sports association head Princess Kiram, Kram Airam Carpio and Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino.

POC

MANAMA, Bahrain — The Philippines joins the 3rd Asian Youth Games opening rites at the Exhibition World Bahrain Thursday hoping it could finish what pencak silat’s Kram Airam Carpio had started — with a gold medal.

“I hope our countrymen will continue to pray and rally behind our whole Philippine team,” said Carpio, who on Monday night delivered the 141-strong delegation its first gold in this 45-nation, 11-day meet in the Bahraini capital.

The Asian Championship silver medalist struck gold in the girls’ 51 to 55-kilogram class with an emphatic 33-19 win over Qiken Dwi Tata Olifia of Indonesia — the cradle of this martial arts discipline that has made its debut in this quadrennial competition.

That precious gold sent the country into third in the medal count, behind only Uzbekistan with five golds and a bronze and Southeast Asian rival Indonesia with a gold and a silvers.

And it could have been two golds if Carpio hadn’t intervened and snatched it.

“I felt a little nervous because I know I’ll be fighting against an opponent from Indonesia, which I know was the place where pencak silat started,” said Carpio.

“I just focused on what I needed to do to finish the job,” she added.

It was also a feat that the Filipinos badly needed as they embarked on a mission to eclipse the country’s two-gold, three-silver in the last edition in Nanjing, China 12 years back.

The two mints came from golfer Mia Legaspi and taekwondo jin Pauline Lopez while the silvers were from Princess Superal of golf, Francis Aaron Agojo of taekwondo and Jurence Mendoza of tennis.

And Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino has high hopes it would be surpassed.

“The team’s morale is high because of this,” said Tolentino. “Definitely, this will be far different from the previous one when we had two gold medals. With this opening salvo, there is a big chance we could outdo it.”

After the grand parade, the Philippines plunges back into action in volleyball, teqball, golf, triathlon, mixed martial arts, taekwondo, muay, athletics, boxing, cycling, weightlifting, table tennis, badminton, wrestling, swimming, jiujitsu and kurash.